"What are you doing here?" Grell asked, not entirely sure whether or not this entire situation was a dream. It had been 7 years since she had last seen William T. Spears, and with how they parted ways, she never thought she'd ever have the chance of speaking to him again.
"I live here, this is my shop." Will answered
"How long have you lived here? why aren't you in the city, running your father's business?!"
"I've been here for 4 years now, it's a long story Grell, but I'll explain everything to you."
Grell couldn't believe they were talking so casually as if they had last seen each other the week before. She couldn't believe he wasn't living in the city, all those times she went to charity events or big dinners, she'd always get nervous, wondering if this was the moment she'd run into him again. He came from a very wealthy family, it wouldn't have been something out of the ordinary to run into each other at least once, but it had never happened. It made sense now that they had never crossed paths... Grell was about to answer something when the sound of Ronald sneezing made her forget what she was about to say.
"Oh, right! Will, this is my best friend Ronald Knox, Ronnie, this is William T. Spears, he's my... childhood best friend." She said, introducing them.
"Nice to meet you but if it's not too much trouble could you tell us where the motel is, I'd like to get there before I die," Ronald asked, still holding his hand over his mouth. William frowned, clearly confused.
"Ronnie is deadly allergic to birds." Grell pointed out
"Actually, this used to be the motel but they wanted to expand so I bought the building. The motel is now located on main street, near the supermarket." Will said, moving from behind the counter and closer to Grell.
"I knew my memory couldn't be that bad..." She mumbled, mostly to herself.
"You could stay at my house for tonight. I have a spear room, that way, we could catch up, Grell." William spoke as he took a few steps closer to the red head. Grell swallowed and nodded. "Yes, that sounds like a lovely idea! Thank you Will." She smiled
William led them through the back, which lead to an elevator that took them upstairs, where his penthouse was. It was smaller than Grell's own penthouse but was still huge. Everything looked like it was patterned straight out of an IKEA catalog, the walls were white and there were no pictures or decorations that made it look like someone actually lived there. It would have looked weird to anyone that didn't know William but not to Grell.
"Ronald, I'll show you to the guest room and Grell, you can stay in my room, I'll sleep on the couch," William announced
"I won't kick you out of your room! I can sleep with Ronnie!" Grell said but William immediately shook his head. "No way, you'll sleep in my room and that's final." He said, pushing his glasses back against the bridge of his nose.
Once Ronald was installed in the guest room, William showed Grell to his room. There was an awkward silence between them and Grell intended to break it.
"So, you said you'd have some explaining to do?" She asked, looking at him as he pushed the door of his bedroom open.
"uh, Yes. I will be doing that shortly." Will turned on the light, in the center of the room was a queen size bed, the sheets were black as well as the pillows. There was a small white bedside table on the left side, which Grell assumed was the side where William slept. On the table, there was a small lamp and an alarm clock but still, no pictures. At the other end of the room where two doors, and as Grell looked at them, William spoke up.
"The door on the right is the bathroom, the one on the left is the walk in closet. There is a plug near the bedside table if you need to charge your phone."
"Thank you Will." Grell took a few steps into the room, placing her suitcase on the floor near the bed before setting her purse on top of it. She took her scarf and coat off, placing them on the bed. She was wearing a red turtleneck and some black skinny jeans with red heeled boots. She sat on the end of the bed and started unlacing her boots when she looked at the door and saw that William was still there, staring at her. He seemed to catch her gaze because he quickly averted his eyes from hers.
"I'm so sorry, I hadn't meant to keep staring at you. It's just... it's been so long since I've last seen you and you've... changed." He said, a small smile playing on his lips as he said those words. "I'll wait for you in the living room." He added quickly before leaving.
Grell finished to untie her shoes, she turned off the light of the room and walked to the living room where William had turned on the light and was sitting on the sofa. Grell sat on an arm chair that was near the window, pulling her legs up and crossing them.
"Would you like some tea?" William asked slowly
"I would love to, thank you!"
Will got up and walked towards the open kitchen, from where Grell was sitting, she could see every movement he made. He turned on the stove before putting some water in a pot and started boiling it. He came back in no time with two cups, one black, and one white. He handed the white one to Grell, which she gladly took. Her manicured red nails making a contrast with the white porcelain. She tried a sip from her tea and found out it wasn't as hot as she'd expect, it was just the right temperature.
"Cinnamon tea, it's good." She commented, there was a long silence as both of them sipped their tea quietly until William cleared his throat a bit.
"So, you're an actress, I've seen some of your movies, you're really talented." He spoke
"Thank you." She said softly before looking at him, her glasses were slightly fogged because of the hot tea but she still managed to see him.
"Why did you break all contact 7 years ago? And why then? You knew I was having such a hard time and you just abandoned me..." Grell spoke again.
"That was never my intention, my father... he changed my phone number but I wrote to you, I wrote you emails and letters but you never responded." William spoke, setting his empty tea cup on the coffee table in front of him.
"How would I have responded to you? It's not like I had money to keep paying for the internet or my cell phone bill. I certainly couldn't keep paying for rent after my mom died. I tried calling you so many times when I got to the city but you never answered, after running out of quarters, I stopped trying." She raised her voice a little.
"I told you, my father changed my number, that's why your calls were never successful." Will said and then paused, letting what Grell had said sink into his brain. "You came to the city?"
"Yes, I took the last bit of money that was in my mom's bank account and bought a ticket, I came to see you but I had no idea where you lived so I used a payphone to call you but you didn't answer. After a few failed attempts, I stayed at a motel until I could decide what to do next, I had nowhere to go and no idea how to find you in this huge city. I was running out of money to live by after only a week, I tried calling a few times every day while I looked for a job but, no one wanted to hire a girl that only had her high school degree." Grell answered more calmly than before.
"I'm so sorry, I had no idea. If I'd only known you were there I would have dropped everything and rushed to your help, you know I would have." William said.
"I know you would have. But thankfully, I met Sebastian, he helped me out." Grell said as she twisted the wedding ring on her finger, looking down at her hands.
There was a moment of silence before either of them dared to speak again. It was William who broke the silence. "I had a plan you know, I had been putting money aside in a bank account... Once I finished my studies, I wanted to come back to get you. I wanted to give you the life you'd always dreamed off. I came back, but when I arrived at your old apartment the landlord said you hadn't been living there for a year... I had no idea you came to the city to find me."
Grell let out a bitter laugh "What were you expecting? That I would have waited around for you for a year? without any new from you? I would have stayed here and do what huh?" she asked, looking up again, their eyes meeting again. She was on the verge of tears but tried hard to keep them from spilling.
"I guess I didn't have everything as planned out as I thought..." Will said, swallowing. "I was ready to do everything in my power to find you but then... I saw you on TV, they were announcing your marriage to this billionaire model so I didn't even bother to look for you. You looked so happy, I couldn't possibly come in the way of your happiness and I knew it would only create unnecessary drama if I contacted you, so I just hoped you'd forgotten about me and let you live the life you were entitled to."
Grell blinked a couple of times, before letting out a dry laugh, running a hand through her red locks but didn't answer anything. There was nothing to say, nothing of what she could say would erase the past. She couldn't say how she wished William would have contacted her after he saw her on TV, she couldn't curse at how she hated his father for changing his number and robbing her of the chance of getting in contact with him. She wouldn't say anything because it wouldn't change a single thing. She'd still be at the point in her life where she was now...
"I'm sorry things had to happen the way they did, but at least something good came out of this. You finally have everything you always dreamed of, right?" Will spoke again, pulling Grell out of her thoughts.
"Yes, I guess things turned out for the best." She said, looking away. She couldn't possibly tell William that she was unhappy, not when there was nothing she could do to change the situation she was in. It was better to lie, better for both of them.
She got up from the armchair, placing her empty cup next to Will's on the small table.
"I should get some sleep." She said, still not daring to look William in the eyes, afraid he'd be able to tell that something was wrong.
"Yes, you should! Feel free to wake up at any time you'd like, Good Night Grell!" Will said before getting up as well but didn't move an inch.
Grell made her way out of the living room when William spoke again.
"You look beautiful." He spoke in a low voice, so low that if there hadn't been absolute silence in the room, she wouldn't have heard him. She turned around and smiled softly at him. "Thank you, good night Will."